About us 7beanZ may be young but the passion behind the beans was a long time coming. 7beanZ is a coffee roasting and bean serving celebration of endless possibilities. That’s what we love most about coffee, it’s always evolving, never boring and mostly mysterious. Michael and Michelle started 7beanZ LLC in May 2023. Michelle and Michael live in Western New York, U.S., just outside of Buffalo. Michelle is a lawyer, mediator and career coach with her own legal and mediation practice. Michael works for a remote based video-phone platform you’ve definitely heard of. We are engaged to be married in 2024. That bio-data may be mildly interesting but what is more intriguing is why we’re both here and we couldn’t be more excited that you’re here with us. Back in 2017 the coffee obsession was born. Both Mike and Michelle enjoyed coffee, which for Michelle, didn’t start until she was in her thirties with coffee flavor mostly masked by syrups and milks. Then in 2016 Michelle went to Italy for the first time, had her first espresso, Italian at that, while exploring her Italian American roots and the espresso been interest sprouted. While in a beautiful espresso bar in Montepulciano, Tuscany she noticed there were no stools and the patrons came and went with purpose, chatting with their barista in Italian, listening to the steam wands warm the milk for the cappuccinos, watching the baristas work the beautiful espresso machines with precision timing and care and smelling the fragrant warmth of community—she knew she needed to capture that and make that part of her daily life and routine. Michael received real time pictures of this captivating new experience which led him down his own rabbit hole, never to be the same coffee drinking human again. Although just friends at the time, coffee became their connection. (And speeding tickets. One them got a few and the other one of them went to court to take care of them. No names need to be mentioned.) They continued to share their coffee experiences and started trying coffee subscription services to taste coffee beans from all over the world with pour overs, French press and moka pots. We didn’t really for sure know what we were doing but it didn’t matter. We were learning and developing taste preferences and pallets. But how can they have this coffee passion without espresso machines of their own? Mike took the plunge first, started with a Breville Barista Pro, which looked intimidating to Michelle at first so naturally she avoided it. She tried a smaller $300 machine, which shall remain nameless, and which over heated the first time she used it and tried to steam milk (the original and the replacement both failed) so she gave up on that type of model. In the meantime, we decided they wanted and needed some formal education on this coffee dream so they registered to take a barista class taught by Jingbo Deng at theBicerin Coffee Lab , certified by Specialty Coffee Association in Toronto, just a few hours drive from Buffalo. Mike was feeling confident with his Breville Pro knowledge and Michelle not knowing anything, was much less so but excited to make latte art. First mistake, signing up for the intermediate class and skipping the full day beginner class. Our instructor (who we now love) was even less impressed with Mike’s experienced and asked why we chose the intermediate class. Excellent question. The next two 12 hour days were full of instruction and hands on dialing in the grinder, making espressos, foaming milk, figuring out recipes, coffee ratios, having clean and organized stations and understanding the science of coffee, or the beginnings of it anyway. It was intense. The final exam was to make 4 coffee drinks in 6 minutes with acceptable latte art. Did I mention Michelle had never touched an espresso machine when she walked in the door?! We passed. Michelle may have cried at the grinder at one point, but we passed and then we passed the written exam making us intermediate baristas. We came back exhausted, elated and even further determined to make this coffee venture happen. We weren’t quite sure what that was exactly but it wasn’t law and it wasn’t tech. After that Mike bought a beautiful Rocket R58 Espresso machine and Michelle when straight to a Lelit Bianca and with a Eureka Silencio grinder. Neither the Lelit nor the Eurkea have disappointed in any way over the past year. Our latte art has improved from blobs to hearts, double hearts and tulips….give us a break – it’s only been a year-swan goals. Exactly one year after we became Intermediate Barista certified we took the three day Brew class This time we started with the beginner class and then took the two day intermediate course. We are now both certified Intermediate Coffee Brewers. We learned about all of the hand brew methods for specialty coffees, the science behind it (or the beginning of it and so much more. Our instructor had a few gorgeous roasters for sale, which again, we did not yet know how to use but so long as the curiosity is there, anything is possible. She pointed us in another direction to begin our venture. Sample roasting. And here we are. Freshly incorporated and freshly roasting sample beans for your fresh cup of brew. Why 7beanZ? Mike and Michelle feel very lucky to have found each other as friends, then life partners and creative partners. 7 is lucky. We are lucky. There are 7 continents. They don’t all produce coffee (maybe someday Antarctica if we don’t’ curb climate change) but the idea of community, travel and finding common grounds in what we share across the globe-our connection to each other as humans-to share delicious coffee together. Lastly, music. There is a song with a numerical name and mysterious lyrics by one of the world’s most famous and beloved pop artists. That song, that artist, it’s beauty, it’s mystery, it’s romance-it’s just like coffee and it’s all 7beanZ.
